In April 2022, the Thai capital market was engulfed by a string of factors, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s downward revision in global economic growth forecast for 2022 and the rally in commodity prices especially energy and food expected to remain high until 2023 propelled by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Moreover, strict lockdown in China in compliance with its zero-COVID has raised concerns about the Chinese economic slowdown, as such exacerbated the problems of global supply chain.
Central banks in many countries faced with dilemma to tighten monetary policy to curb inflation, and keep the paces of their post-COVID economic recovery.
Analysts expected that the Federal Reserve (Fed) would raise interest rate at a faster pace than expected and resulted in real yield rise in opposite directions of US stock indices.
Foreign investors heading back to ASEAN markets
SET Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien said that foreign investors brought their funds back to ASEAN markets.
In the first four months of 2022, capital inflows to the Thai stock market were significant on forecast that the Thai economy will grow at the stronger pace than advanced economies.
Moreover, analysts still expected the 12-month forward earnings per share growth of 10 percent compared with end-2021. However, at end-April, the SET Index closed at 1,667.44, or a 1.6 percent decrease from the previous month, in consistent with the regional peers, but still rose 0.6 percent from end-2021.
Key highlights for April
- SET Index ended April at 1,667.44 points, a 1.6 percent decline from the previous month, moving in the same direction as regional peers. However, it increased 0.6 percent from end-2021.
- In the first four months of 2022, SET Index was driven by the country reopening, with Services, Technology and Resources industry groups outperforming SET Index when compared with year-end 2021.
- In April, the average daily trading value of SET and mai amounted to THB 82.32 billion (approx. USD 2.40 billion), down 11.8 percent from the same period a year earlier. In the first four months of 2022, the average daily trading value averaged was at THB 93.24 billion. Retail investors were back to dominate trading, accounting for 43.75 percent of total trading value, followed by foreign investors at 41.48 percent.
- Foreign investors were net buyers for the fifth consecutive month in April at THB 9.78 billion, raising their net buy position to. of THB 118.12 billion for the first four months of 2022.
- In April, there was one IPO on SET: JD Food pcl (JDF), and one company on mai:
Chamni’s Eye pcl (CEYE). - SET’s forward P/E ratio was 17.7 times at end-April, exceeding the average ratio of Asian markets at 13.3 times. The historical P/E ratio was 18.3 times, higher than the average ratio of Asian markets at 14.3 times.
- The dividend yield ratio of SET was 2.66 percent at end-April, above Asian stock markets’ average ratio of 2.51 percent.
Derivatives market
n April, Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) recorded the derivatives trading average volume at 379,723 contracts per day, a 45.9 percent decline from the same period a year earlier due to lower trading volume of Single Stock Futuresand SET50 Index Futures. However, in the first four months of 2022, the derivatives trading volume averaged 577,227 contracts per day, an 8.2 percent rise from the same period a year earlier.